4 THE HORSE. 



practised with general attention and perseverance 

 in times long antecedent. Blundeville, the earliest 

 now known, and one of the ablest of them, describes 

 the generality of English horses in the reign of Eli- 

 zabeth, as either weak or sturdy jades, adapted only 

 to draught ; with however some, indeed very credit- 

 able exceptions. As an example, he states the fact 

 of a horse having travelled for a wager, four score 

 miles within the day. The ambition of improvement 

 had then become so universally diffused, that even 

 the carters were very nice in their choice of horses. 

 The great breeders of the country, according to Blun- 

 deville, had long been accustomed to import the 

 following races for the stud : " The Turk, the Barba- 

 rian, the Sardinian, the Neapolitan, the Jennet of 

 Spain, the Hungarian, the high Almaine (German), 

 the Friezeland, the Flanders, and the Irish Hobby." 

 Nevertheless, in those days, horses could not have 

 been very numerous in England, since the queen 

 experienced the utmost difficulty in mounting two 

 or three thousand cavalry. 



Throughout these early periods, as in modern times, 

 riding on horseback, and trying the speed of their 

 horses, was peculiarly an English diversion. The 

 country sports of hunting and hawking are of a very 

 ancient date ; and our old chronicles furnish us with 

 accounts of the constant diversions in Smoothfteld 

 (Smithfield), then an extensive plain, where the citi- 

 zens of London matched and raced their horses, the 

 superior orders joining with the citizens in these 

 sporting competitions. The peculiar English system 

 of breeding the horse, essentially and usefully diffe- 



